Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

The basic idea of the two, however, is identical. The small statue by Leonardo is full of Renaissance vigour, whereas the monument of the 2nd Transylvanian Hussar Regiment was conceived in the classicising style of the 1920s and thus it is a rare representative of modernity in an age whose monuments are dominated by Histo- ricism.

The erection of the monument was initiated by the officers of the regiment and financed from the proceeds of a public fund-raising campaign. The pedestal, designed by Károly Weichinger, deserves special mention. The excellent architect, who was later to publish a study devoted to the architectural and spatial problems of positioning the statue, did a very fine job. In conformity with the reddish hue of the castle walls, the pedestal is built of Dutch clinker. What is more, rather than place it in the middle of the bastion, Weichinger pushed the monument to the edge of the rampart. By doing so he achieved a smooth fit between pediment and wall and a silhouette which is clearly visible from both the promenade and the street Lovas út below.

The base of this exceptionally dynamic and powerfully suggestive piece was originally decorated with two bronze reliefs. One showed the regiment marching in formal military greeting before its founder, Maria Theresa, while the other presented the hussars as they take leave of a Transylvanian Székely village at the end of World War I. The reliefs are no longer on the pediment; their fate after 1945 is unknown.

The equestrian statue of Artúr Görgey (1818-1916) was far less fortunate. This one was erected at the end of Bástya sétány, on the Prímás (Primate) Bastion on 21 May 1935 to mark the 249th anniversary of the retaking of the Castle of Buda. György Vastagh jr. sculpted the figure of this exceptionally talented general of the 1848-49 War of Independence in the Historicist style of the period. He set the 125 per cent life-size bronze figure of a mounted Görgey on top of a two-metre high granite pediment of noble simplicity. Görgey bestrode his thoroughbred in his characteristically imperturbable upright posture. The stallion stood quietly, its arched neck and pointed ears the only signs of expectant attention.

As the sculpture depicted a bareheaded Görgey with helmet in hand, the facial features could be given the de33